


Sleep Is For The Weak

by tjmcharg



Series: Our Photo Album [10]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Caring, Did I Mention Fluff, Fluff, Headaches & Migraines, Kissing, M/M, Sick Character, Sickfic, Teacher Dan Howell, because its fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-06 01:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13400184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjmcharg/pseuds/tjmcharg
Summary: Today was not a good day. Dan was tired, his head was pounding like a drum. He loved teaching, honestly he did, but when he started the day with a mild headache he knew it could only go downhill from there.Basically just Dan doesn't sleep enough and Phil is a caring boyfriend





	Sleep Is For The Weak

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is all thanks to a request on my tumblr [Nerdydisneychild](https://nerdydisneychild.tumblr.com/) *cough cough*  
> (shameless self promotion)  
> But seriously I cannot thank this anon enough! I absolutely loved the idea and I hope this is what they had in mind.  
> Enjoy!! 
> 
> (the request)  
> "aaaa i love your series ! could you write one where dans rlly stressed from teaching and hes not feeling good either (ie he has a stomachache and headache) so phil takes him home and takes care of him"

Today was  _ not _ a good day. Dan was tired, his head was pounding like a drum. He loved teaching, honestly he did, but when he started the day with a mild headache he knew it could only go downhill from there. 

 

You see, as much as Dan loved his students, they were loud, very  _ very  _ loud. Today, was no exception, only today, Dan couldn’t put up with it. He winced as yet another student screamed across the classroom, sending a spike of pain from his temples to behind his eyes. “Quietly working please,” He raised his voice slightly, dutifully ignoring the harsh throbs of pain as he did so.  
“Sorry Mr Howell!” A boy, Jeremy, yelled from the back of the room and Dan sighed heavily, checking his watch for what must have been the third time in the last five minutes. Only ten minutes to go, he could make this. 

 

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to focus on finding his happy place, the classroom only grew louder. Some students were enjoying the fact that Dan didn’t have enough energy to reprimand them into their normal behaviour and so had begun a game of truth or dare. While the rest of the class appreciated Dan’s lack of rules, chattering across tables as they worked away. Needless to say, his headache wasn’t appreciating the cacophony of noise that he would only be able to get rid of by screaming. Which was something that he had sworn to never do, talking sternly and doing the “I’m not angry, just disappointed” routine had been working well for him so far and he planned to continue using it as it made him a favourite amongst the students. Besides, his head wouldn’t be able to handle such a loud noise coming from himself anyway. 

 

“Phil!” One of the students exclaimed happily, and Dan managed to open his eyes, hissing slightly at the harsh lighting of the classroom.  
He smiled weakly at his boyfriend, despite the unrepenting and unforgiving throbbing in his temples his heart still managed to pitter patter at the sight of Phil’s warm smile.  
“Hi everyone!” Phil waved joyfully, bounding over to an empty seat and flopping down, once the students returned to their… loud activities, Phil directed his attention to Dan. 

 

No matter how hard Dan tried to force a smile onto his face, Phil still furrowed his eyebrows upon seeing how worn out he looked.  
Dan sighed heavily internally, he should have known that Phil would be able to see right through him, to his boyfriend, Dan was as transparent as a pane of glass.  
“What’s wrong,” Phil whispered before scurrying over, careful not to disrupt any students as he went past. He still earned a few strange looks and some more mischievous ones, Dan was too exhausted to ponder too much about the positively gleeful expressions on some of his student’s faces. 

 

Dan went to shake his head, before immediately regretting it as he was sent a spike of pain that shot straight to the back of his eyes, as though the hollows his eyes sat in were trying to self implode. He let out a small choked sob and blinked away the water gathering in his eyes.  
“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” he forced a laugh but it sounded empty and fake, the whole sound completely off. Phil’s eyebrows only creased more and Dan longed to reach up and smooth them out. However he could feel his students watching their every move, eager eyes waiting for some kind of relationship, why, Dan couldn’t understand. 

 

Phil shook his head gently, pulling up a chair beside Dan’s desk and rolling his eyes, “You don’t look fine,” he reprimanded softly, voice barely louder than a whisper.  
“Jeez thanks,” Dan scoffed, pressing his tongue to the roof of his mouth in a weak attempt to relieve the pain.  
Phil rolled his eyes yet again, “You’re as white as a sheet, but your cheeks are flushed. Your eyes are squinted most of the time as though you’re trying to see the world’s inner thoughts and you look as though you might fall asleep sitting up. I have the right to be worried and to say you don’t look fine Daniel,” Phil chastised and Dan wrinkled his nose at the truth of it all. 

 

“Mr Howell?” One of his students raised their hands and Dan tried to hide the wince he gave at their loud tone.  
Elizabeth was sitting tall in her chair, short, dark, flyaway hair, framing her sharp chin, she was the troublemaker in his class, but also his best student. In this way she was infuriating and astonishing at the same time, her thin bony arm was flung high in the air and a smirk was adorning her faerie like face, which was never a good sign.  
“Yes Elizabeth?” He attempted a smile but must have failed because Phil winced at the expression. 

 

“El,” she corrected him and he nodded, “Are we going to get our results back?” at her words the class fell silent, which made Dan a strange concoction of gratitude and exhaustion, because he really couldn’t be bothered explaining it now, but the silence was doing wonders for his headache.  
“No sorry, I’ll hand them out tomorrow,” he attempted to dismiss but the class broke out into a loud raucous at his response which made him want to bury his face in Phil’s chest and never emerge.  
The noises were causing pain to shoot across Dan’s forehead, so that instead of a few pinpoints of intense pain, he had an entire head of it.  
He hadn’t thought it was possible for his class to get louder, but it seems he was wrong. 

 

“I’m sorry Dan,” Phil whispered and Dan was about to ask why when Phil screamed, “QUIET!” The whole class jumped, including Dan who had never heard Phil raise his voice before, in the whole eight months they had known each other. He was so shocked that he managed to ignore the harsh pounding from inside his skull.  
“Da-Mr Howell,” Phil corrected himself, speaking now in a much softer tone, “Said that he would do it tomorrow, because he can’t today. Besides there’s only a minute left of class, I’d say you should start packing up.” 

The class grumbled slightly but began to pack up, there were some hushed whispers of “Phan” and “Awwww protective boyfriends” which Dan dutifully decided to ignore. 

  
The bell rung out, loud and clear, and Dan couldn’t help but sag with relief as the last student clicked the door shut behind them. By sag, he literally collapsed forward onto the desk. Almost hitting his still aching head onto the hard wood because he couldn’t hold himself up any longer.  
He allowed Phil to gently ease him back into a sitting position, basically all his weight against his boyfriend, and whisper, “Why didn’t you go home you dork?”  
Dan shrugged, his whole body weak with fatigue and drained of coherent words, “Didn’t need to,” he mumbled, the words coming out garbled and meek. 

 

Phil sighed heavily, pulling Dan into his chest and resting a cool hand against his flaming forehead, “You most definitely did,” he said before helping Dan to his feet.  
As soon as Phil shut the door to his car Dan felt his head loll forward and sleep finally take him. 

 

~-~-~

 

He woke up to Phil gently shaking his arm, face worried and eyebrows furrowed, Dan reached out with a shaky hand to smooth out the creases between his eyes. Phil chuckled at the action, “Sick and yet still caring more about me than yourself,” he teased with no feeling behind the words. Dan whimpered softly as Phil eased him out of the car, instantly wrapping an arm around his waist and helping him into the apartment, which Dan has only just realised his Phil’s not his. 

 

“Ma carsat the school still,” Dan mumbled, as Phil lowered him onto Phil’s bed, which still managed to make Dan’s stomach flip despite how horrible he felt. They had only been dating for two months after all, the idea of lying in Phil’s bed was still exciting even if they had done, more compromising things in there than checking Dan’s temperature.  
By the upset noise Phil made it wasn’t a healthy temperature, “As if I’m letting you drive home when you can barely say car properly,” Phil rolled his eyes, pressing a soothing kiss to Dan’s forehead. 

 

“My talking is fine thanks,” Dan made sure to concentrate on the words carefully so he didn't make any mistakes. Phil sent him a disapproving look from the bathroom so he mustn't have been too convincing.  
“How long has it been since you slept properly Daniel?” He asked kneeling beside the bed with a washcloth and some medicine.  
Dan bit his lip, “Two days?” He wasn’t at all shocked by the disappointed look on Phil’s face but it still hurt.  
“And eaten?” Phil wasn’t making eye contact with him, his focus determinedly set on the medicine he was pouring into a small cup. 

 

Dan looked away when Phil finally looked up at him, his heart throbbing almost as painfully as his head at the piercing sadness in Phil’s eyes, “Last night…” he admitted, still looking the other way and pretending he didn’t hear the sigh Phil gave in response. 

 

“Is this because of that assignment?” Phil pries gently, turning Dan’s face with a hand so soft and delicate it made him feel like something precious, to be cherished. Phil’s eyes were boring into him, Dan nodded slowly. Taking the medicine being handed to him and drinking it, nose wrinkling at the bitter flavour.  
“They’ve been waiting for weeks but they’ve been so hard to mark and I thought if I just stay up and-” Phil cut him off with a kiss, “You’re going to get sick now,” Dan mumbled when they pulled away shortly after.  
Phil rolled his eyes as though the insinuation was ridiculous, “As though that’s what I care about right now. You know that your students are wonderful kids and they will wait as long as necessary,” Dan felt tears spring to his eyes as Phil continued, “You’re an amazing teacher and they all love you, so don’t put their marks before your wellbeing,” he kissed him lightly on the nose lightly causing Dan to burrow his head into the pillow in embarrassment. 

 

“You’re sappy,” he mumbled into the soft fabric and Phil laughed, the sound soft and wheezy but truly beautiful in a way only Phil could accomplish.  
Dan felt a kiss being pressed to his messy curls and Phil whispering, “Only for you.” Dan rolled over as Phil crawled into the bed beside him, gathering his lanky limbs into a comfortable position against Phil’s chest.  
“Besides anything you dork, I can’t exactly catch sleep deprivation,” Phil teased him and Dan groaned, already feeling his body slip into the easy lull of sleep. Being cuddled into someone’s arms made Dan’s whole body relax in a way it hadn’t for weeks. Not properly at least. 

 

He planted a soft feathery light kiss to the underside of Phil’s jaw, reveling in the sharp intake of breath Phil gave in response. Dan began putting more effort into the kisses, sucking slightly at the skin. a  
“You. Need. To. Sleep,” Phil gasped in between kisses, grabbing Dan’s face and pulling it up to meet his. Dan grinned sleepily at the fond look in Phil’s eyes as he leaned forward and gently kissed him. It was the kind of kiss that took Dan’s breath away while filling Dan’s lungs with a type of warm bubbles. The type of kiss that whispered words neither of them had the courage to say yet. 

 

Phil eased back so that they were no longer kissing but their faces were only millimetres apart, noses brushing together with soft smiles only for eachother.  
“Now, lie down, relax and go to sleep,” Phil cuddled Dan back to his chest and Dan felt his body melt as though made of molasses. His arms framing Phil’s body and falling into the mattress beside them.  
In all his years of life, from childhood, to now; Dan had never felt this loved. He had never felt this feeling that was blooming and bubbling from his heart and flowing through his veins. He had never felt cherished and comforted, like he was a treasure that deserved this treatment. 

 

It was at that moment Dan realised. 

 

He loved Phil Lester. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> As always check out my tumblr at [Nerdydisneychild](https://nerdydisneychild.tumblr.com/) *cough cough*  
>   
> I love to hear from you guys in any way so comments and requests are greatly appreciated  
> Love you all!!


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